With the general elections some months away, the big story in the political circles in Akwa Ibom State is that Governor Udom Emmanuel might have sensed what is to come and has started making moves to join the All Progressives Congress.

“This evening he sent a high powered delegation of Ibibio elders to beg Senator Godswill Akpabio to be allowed to defect to the APC before Monday, the last day for filling of candidates in INEC. The delegation begged for the governor’s name to be sent to INEC in place of Mr Nsima Ekere who won the APC primary held last Sunday. It was a request which drew a chuckle from a bemused Akpabio because it sounded as strange as a tale from the outer world”, according to an APC chieftain who was privy to the meeting.

Those in the know have claimed it is “the umpteenth time the governor is making desperate efforts to decamp to the ruling Party in a bid to escape electoral humiliation. Early August a group of APC stakeholders in the state had to take up advertorials in some newspapers asking their National Chairman not to allow Udom Emmanuel into the Party”.

Months ago, Udom’s predecessor and major power broker in Akwa Ibom politics, Senator Godswill Akpabio dumped the People’s Democratic Party for the APC, a move that caused a major shift as the better percentage of his followers moved to the APC with him.